Will Lord And Lady Grantham Be Facing Hard Times In 'Downton Abbey’s' Final Season?

The Crawley’s will reportedly be forced to downsize in the show’s upcoming final series.

‘Downton Abbey’s’ final season looks set to be a harsh goodbye for the posh Crawley family, who will be forced to make some drastic changes to their lavish lifestyle. According to reports the family will be forced to massively downsize during the show's sixth and final season and they may even loose their servants in an effort to cut costs.

The final season of period drama ‘Downton Abbey’ is approaching.

According to The Mirror The Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) will realises he needs to take steps to save money after visiting a neighbour that had to sell the family silver to make ends meet. This means that staff at Downton will be given their redundancy notices and the family will have to learn to take care of themselves.

Speaking about the changes his character faces Bonneville said, "We visit a neighbour in the county who literally has to sell the family silver. This once great estate is being fragmented."

“Robert, the dinosaur that he has been all this time, does adapt. He wants to conserve the best of the past but absolutely understands that the future beckons. The final season very much has a flavour of the end of an era,” the actor added.

But it’s not the Lord of the house who is most resistant to the changes the family faces, instead it’s their loyal butler Carson who takes things the hardest and struggles to cope with the households decreasing numbers of staff.

Speaking to The Guardian, Gareth Neame, the show’s executive producer, said that the final season is focused on 'the end of an era. The dying of the light. The slight sense of finality', “It is not Downton pulling up the drawbridge, not a thunderbolt that destroys it," he reavealed.

"At the end, the camera will move away. We don’t have to have completely happy endings. But for the audience it is not a satisfying ending to have the place blown up. It is overwhelmingly a positive show, even when melancholic,” the producer added.